Parents of toddlers are panicking and scrambling to find new placements for their children after being told on Monday their nursery will shut in four weeks.

Pebbles Nursery operates out of the Russian Orthodox Church in Harvard Road, Chiswick, and for the past four years it has offered a pleasant and convenient childcare option to working parents.

Many have grown accustomed to the nursery's high standards, like the "organic meals freshly prepared on the premises" noted in its latest Ofsted report.

But on Monday the nursery's owners, Sunita and Serena Gill, shocked 30 sets of parents and nine members of staff when they announced it would shut on August 31.

Parents are under the impression that the church is forcing the nursery out.

Zoë Corney, a parent, said: "Since I found out I have been running around looking for a nursery in Chiswick but they are all full.

"I phoned all the nurseries under the A4 but they're all full with waiting lists. It took ages to find this nursery which my daughter loves. Now we are back to square one.

"It's a fantastic nursery and the staff are brilliant. We are all absolutely furious. Even if they are legally obligated to give parents four weeks they should be giving us more notice than this because some parents are on holiday.

"A church of all places should show a bit of morality and they do not care about the staff who are losing their jobs. They just want their hall back."

Another parent, Julia Malpass, said: "At first the parents rallied together, then over the course of the day it became apparent the owners did want that. They said they didn't want to get involved. Its really sad because we've kind of realised that the nursery is closing and the staff have all given up.

"It is terribly difficult to find child care in Chiswick and if I cannot find something soon I will need to take unpaid leave from work, which means, for us, that we could not pay rent. The financial implications could mess up our life quite badly or put us into quite a bit of debt just to cover it."

One of the owners declined to comment on "what has unfortunately happened at the church".

She said they are looking for other premises in Chiswick, but admitted that it is very difficult to find registered nursery premises that Ofsted will approve.

The church priest, Father Vadim Zakreusky, blames the church's trust, which had plans to buy the nursery.

Fr Zakreusky said: "For months the trust treasurer Alexander Shadrin told us Pebbles will stay in the church and that everyone was happy, but as you can see it is a total disaster."

Mr Shadrin said the nursery decided to take itself elsewhere when the trust needed to delay the purchase because a new priest was coming to the church.

He said: "We did not pressure or push out the nursery. The owners said they could not wait and so we cancelled the transaction."

Mr Shadrin revealed that he and his wife have plans to donate money in order to refurbish the second floor of the church to establish a new nursery and primary school.